Vibrational analysis widget for MeTA Studio

Many had asked about the support for visualizing frequency data from GAMESS/ Gaussian output in MeTA Studio. The short answer was: not out of box.

The long story: you and write a widget, and well good thing is that I myself wrote it ;) You can get the widget here [freqViewWidget.bsh].

To use this widget:
- make sure you have the latest version (2.0.24022009) or higher
- download the above script
- use the Add/Remove Widget button on the Widgets panel to install the widget
- Optionally open it in code editor (in meta studio) and click on "Make Widget" button
- the widget should appear in the Widgets panel.

- next open a molecule file as usual in meta studio
- then click on select molecule in widget, select the molecule with freq data
- then i guess its pretty straight forward ;)

So how does it look?



And I guess the graph (generated from jfreechart API which are shipped with MeTA Studio), looks pretty too .. try it out and let me know!



Have fun!

MeTA Studio update and re-factoring plan

First on the re-factoring plan:

After much of though, I have decided to re-factor the graphics engine for MeTA Studio so as to make it more flexible and enable it to use multiple rendering engines at the backend at the same time providing complete UI integration with existing IDE. This will take some substantial amount of time and hence I plan not to update the source release till such time. Only on-line updates will be provided till such time. Any changes to APIs will be reflected in the API documentation that would be shipped with the on-line update.

Current version is more of bug fix release with some new APIs:
- GAMESS/ Gaussian reader now reads more additional information
- Some of these can be see by: Right Click -> Tools -> Additional Information in the MoleculeViewer, there are a number of usability bugs in this code though at the moment.
- Molecule.AdditionalInformation class is updated
- there are other API additions and modifications in org.meta.molecule package (refer to IDE help for mode details).

During the time when graphics engine re-factoring is being done, any features that use graphics framework (for example Frequency visualisation) will be shipped as user scripts, and at a later stage would be integrated into the IDE.

The current version is: 2.0.23022009
The usual UAC note to Vista users apply, you need to start MeTA Studio in admin-mode to update (I plan to fix this in the next full binary update).

Have fun!

(Update: some necessary small updates made the current version to 2.0.24022009)

Cooliris (PicLens) is great even on small screens and netbooks :)

Some time ago I wrote a short post advocating for a wonderful piece of software called Cooliris (here). Back then I was using my high powered desktop but currently am on move and only have access to my MiLeap. Even on this small screen and pretty basic graphics hardware , Cooliris seems to just work very smooth, and the UI also scales pretty well :)

Windows 7 WritePad supports saving as ODF!

Windows 7 WritePad seems to support saving in ODF format!! Which is totally surprising .. it also supports writing in OOXML format. In simple tests that I did with saving to ODF format, I could open the files written in WritePad in OpenOffice without any glitch!

Popular(?!) Windows 7 and the lesser known MeTA Studio ;)

... just to say that it works perfectly ;)

MeTA Sudio: minor update

A minor update (bug fix and jrman) update is available. The version number is (2.2.0.09022009).

Please read this post before applying this update.

This update brings the jrman library to the latest version, this makes rendering images much better than what was available with previous versions. However, it removes many jrman classes that are really not required for rendering (UI and some test classes). Also there is a scuttle change in the JRMan rendered image within MeTA Studio: the background of the images is always transparent. This behaviour may be modified in future.

Again no source update yet ... the next source update will include changes to the jrman lib as used in MeTA Studio... but this will be after quite some time ;)

Have fun!

Reporting and Blogs: Blatant errors!

I am not sure how you take this when some blogger in PC World announces that Malaria is a Viral infection!!

Even a 10th grader student would know that Malaria is not a Viral infection but is a caused by protozoan parasites, generally Plasmodium vivax, which is *not* a virus! It is simply ridiculous that people don't try to atleast verify what they are writing, or atleast update it, when there are comments telling that how wrong they are!!

The point for Rs 500 laptop (or shall I say sub Rs 1K device?)

OK. So now Hindu has a more reasonable story about the device (I will not call this a laptop any more) with a bit hazy picture of it.

And potentially it seems to have got bashing from every where (here, here and here)!

.. well including me. The problem was with calling the device a "laptop". A "laptop" as is commonly seen in the tech world as a completely different device as opposed to what was shown in Tirupati. But, I still feel that every one missed the point, because of the device being labelled as "laptop". Does any one remember Cherry PC? To me this is an Indian competitor for the same... only probably a lot less cheaper, and may be a less capable too. It would be fantastic if for example you could connect this device to the TV (they are in many many Indian households), and get a cheap keyboard, and a wireless or a wired broadband connection... and viola you have the whole Internet, or the as the education ministry wants it to be...

As against what many people say, this device has a potential, but only time will tell if this does not turn into another "vapourware" like well Simputer or Mobilis (although they are not "vapours" but their cost is extremely high as compared to what they were originally predicted to be).

Rs 500 laptop followup

As I speculated earlier in this post, this device (aka "laptop") doesn't have a display (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Hyderabad/10-laptop_proves_to_be_a_damp_squib/articleshow/4072417.cms)

.. But I am still awaiting more details on what actually it is. But it is definite that it cannot be called a laptop ... pretty safely!

.. So I can continue to dream on my netuter design ;)

MeTA Studio update: map-reduce, editor, bug fixes

New online update is available (version 2.0.03022009) [accessible via. Help->Check for Updates with in the IDE].

Before any thing,
Very Important:

After applying this update remove the following file from metastudio settings before restarting:
~/.meta2.0/launcherConfig.xml

Note that depending on the OS, ~ should be appropriately replaced. For Windows Vista this is in C:\Users\< user-name >, for earlier windows its C:\Documents and Settings\< users-name >, for UNIX/Linux this is usually /home/< user-name >, for OSX it is /Users/< user-name >.

This is required because the way MeTA Studio is launched has completely changed from this version to allow purely non-gui MeTA Studio demon (using --daemon command line switch) to be running, even on machines that do not have graphical environment.

Future additions to the current version:

- The Molecule option in IDE now provides and additional option to create a new molecule using in built (yet to be complete) MoleculeEditor. This is highly experimental and its functionality is going to change over time. Don't complain at this stage ;) but suggestions are welcome :)

- The mapreduce framework is now usable, but not yet complete. To test out this framework you can use the scripts from http://tovganesh.googlepages.com/mapreduce.zip, try running mapreduce.bsh from IDE [Tools -> Open Code Editor]. Every thing else, at this point, I guess is self explanatory ;)

The current mapreduce framework has a slow start and does not yet handle node failures. Note of security: mapreduce involves remote execution of BeanShell scripts. By default MeTA Studio prompts for any action relating to Federation framework (mapreduce is implemented over the Federation APIs). This can be appropriately configured as suited from with in IDE [Preference -> Federation Security Rules].

- Includes a usual list of bug fixes
- But does not include updated help for the new mapreduce APIs and no source update yet ... I plan to do this in the next iteration.

have fun!

windows 7 UAC

Interesting reads on UAC on Windows 7:

[1] http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090130/uac-security-flaw-windows-7-beta-proof/
[2] http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/02/windows_7_secur.html
[3]
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/01/15/user-account-control-uac-quick-update.aspx